In his master’s thesis (2001), the simulation researcher Niki Popper quoted text passages about the human respiratory cycle without substantiating them accordingly. Communication scientist Stefan Weber, known as a ‘plagiarism hunter’, explains this in his blog.
Popper admitted on Monday that he took passages “without thinking”. As far as he remembers, these were statements about the structure and function of the human lungs, which he had taken from physiology textbooks. Popper’s actual scientific work consisted of modeling the processes and performing analyses.
The work at the Vienna University of Technology is titled “Simulation of the Respiratory System: Compartment Modeling and Modeling of Perfusion”. This is an attempt to mathematically understand the blood flow in the lungs and create a simple model based on that.
Internet plagiarism?
The communication scientist Stefan Weber wrote in his blog about “numerous 1:1 plagiarism from the internet on more than 30 pages.” He admitted that “straight quotes” in math and computer science “almost never occur”: “But it doesn’t follow from this that you can do copy/paste without references in math and computer science.” Popper said on Twitter that he independently implemented and documented the model and its components.
The scientist is okay with Weber looking at his work. Popper is committed to transparency in science and is available to participate. Weber meanwhile announced that he also wanted to devote himself to Popper’s thesis.
Austrian of the year 2021
Nikolas Popper is an Austrian simulation researcher, university lecturer and entrepreneur. He became nationally known for his computer models for the Covid 19 pandemic. Popper was on the advisory board of the Ministry of Health’s coronavirus task force and was named 2021 Austrian of the year in the research category.
Source: Krone
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